18,183 Shares in Veeco Instruments Inc. $VECO Purchased by Caxton Associates LLP

Key Points

• Caxton Associates LLP invested $365,000 to acquire 18,183 shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. during the first quarter.
• Institutional investors collectively own 98.46% of Veeco Instruments' stock, with several firms increasing their positions, including Raymond James Financial Inc., which boosted its stake by 55.8%.
• Veeco Instruments reported a net margin of 8.65% and achieved earnings per share of $0.36, exceeding analyst expectations of $0.22.

Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in shares of Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ:VECO - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 18,183 shares of the semiconductor company's stock, valued at approximately $365,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VECO. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 396.2% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,295 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Veeco Instruments during the first quarter worth $37,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 213.9% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,139 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 33.6% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,366 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 847 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Veeco Instruments by 75.9% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,672 shares of the semiconductor company's stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 1,584 shares during the period. 98.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VECO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Veeco Instruments from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of Veeco Instruments from $31.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $27.33.

Veeco Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of VECO traded up $1.25 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $28.40. The stock had a trading volume of 903,792 shares, compared to its average volume of 917,086. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.21. Veeco Instruments Inc. has a one year low of $16.92 and a one year high of $34.34. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 5.10, a quick ratio of 3.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ:VECO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The semiconductor company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.14. Veeco Instruments had a net margin of 8.65% and a return on equity of 7.38%. The company had revenue of $166.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.31 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Veeco Instruments Inc. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Veeco Instruments

In other news, CEO William John Miller sold 25,000 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $625,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 470,671 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,766,775. This trade represents a 5.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Adrian Devasahayam sold 4,046 shares of Veeco Instruments stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.00, for a total transaction of $105,196.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 86,134 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,239,484. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.40% of the company's stock.

About Veeco Instruments

Veeco Instruments Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, sells, and supports semiconductor and thin film process equipment primarily to make electronic devices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, China, Rest of the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company offers laser annealing, ion beam deposition and etch, metal organic chemical vapor deposition, single wafer wet processing and surface preparation, molecular beam epitaxy, advanced packaging lithography, atomic layer deposition, and other deposition systems.